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CHAPTER30
Katie woke up in a hospital room. She almost passed out with relief, but made an effort to stay conscious and look around at her strange, yet familiar surroundings.
Every hospital looked the same. Clean, sterile, medicinal. She hadn’t seen anything so white in the longest weeks of her life, and hearing English? Even the muffled conversation outside her door was like music to her ears.
Even if she wasn’t home, she had to be on American soil again, and that was more than she could have hoped for.
Before she could explore her thoughts and remember what had happened to her, her mother’s face came around the doorframe and her bright smile made Katie feel faint again.
She never thought she’d see her mom again.
Her father followed, carrying bags for her mother, with a sheepish grin on his face.
“Baby girl,” her mom gushed, rushing over to hug her.
Katie’s hands were bandaged, and a rush of images filled her brain. She tried to file them away and enjoy being with these people she’d longed to see but thought she never would, but one face kept pushing to the forefront of her mind.
“We are so glad to see you well.” Even with his formal speech, her father had tears in his eyes. This had to be hard for them, and she felt a little sad about putting them through so much.
“I’m glad to be back,” she admitted. “Uh, where am I?” Hospitals didn’t exactly have a welcome to so and so hospital sign in the rooms when you woke up. “How long have I been out?” She had so many questions.
“You’re near Austin, Texas. In the military hospital in Fort Hood.” Her mom reached for her hand, but froze at the bandages, settling for patting and rubbing her forearm instead. “You’ve been in an induced unconsciousness for three days, while they got the drugs out of your system.”
That explained a lot actually. She felt more alert than she had in weeks.
Had it been weeks?
She swallowed, her mouth dry. Her father saw, and he dropped the bags to hand her some water.
“Your mother packed all sorts of stuff for you to have. We weren’t sure how long you would be in here.” He held the straw while she took a sip, trying not to gulp the delicious cool drink.
“I brought pajamas, a hairbrush, some crossword puzzles, a little lipstick… You know, the basics.” Her mom shrugged, looking unapologetic.
“What exactly happened?”
“We don’t know exactly. But apparently, I have connections.” She remembered Antonio’s conversation on the helicopter and wasn’t so sure it was her father’s connections, but she let him preen about it anyway. It wasn’t like she was sure she could even talk about what she’d heard.
“Can you—” her mom began and had to stop, overcome. “Can you talk about what happened?” Her eyes were full of tears, and Katie wanted to hug her.
Could she?
“Maybe sometime I can. But not now. It’s too raw. And I can’t remember a lot of it anyway.” She could remember some of what the men on the helicopter had discussed, and she came away with the idea that Antonio wasn’t a bad guy in all of this, but she’d seen what she’d seen and couldn’t reconcile the two—even if sometimes, he hadn’t been all that bad.
